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Roman Archers
The Archers of the IX Legion are as well trained as their Legionnaire counterparts, and are an even more powerful force on the battlefield. These hardy warriors have spent years perfecting their military craft as a unit, and can concentrate their firepower upon a single enemy in a formidable barrage of arrows. Because the Roman Archers are vulnerable in close quarters, they rely on the swords and shields of their Legionnaire brethren to protect them from hand-to-hand combat. The Book of the Roman Archers Stats * Life: 1 * Move: 4 * Range: 6 * Attack: 2 * Defense: 1 * Points: 55 * Figures per Squad: 3 Abilities *'Arrow Volley': Special Attack: Range 6, Attack 6 Three unengaged adjacent Roman Archers on the same level may combine their attacks and roll their attack dice as one attack. All Roman Archers in the Arrow Volley must have a clear line of sight on the one target. Synergy *Sacred Band : Disciplined Army Defense Bonus Having a "Disciplined" personality, Roman Archers are compatible with the Sacred Band's Disciplined Army Defense Bonus. Behind the Game The only Einar ranged squad before Wave 6, the Roman Archers are the only common squad in Heroscape to have a ranged Special Attack - Arrow Volley. This replaces the 3 normal attacks of a squad of Roman Archers with a single strength 6 attack. To put a strength 6 attack in perspective, only 8 heroes in classic Heroscape have any attack of strength 6 or greater, and the cheapest (the original Sgt. Drake Alexander) costs twice as many points as a unit of Roman Archers. The Zombies of Morindan and Ashigaru Spearmen have similar combined attacks of 6 as well. However, neither those combined squad attacks, nor any of the other strength 6 plus attacks in the game, can be delivered without adjacency, making the Arrow Volley the most powerful unboosted ranged attack in classic Heroscape. *'Attack Requirements for Arrow Volley': Do all three Archers need to have range and Line of Sight in order to use Arrow Volley? Yes, they all need to have Range and Line of Sight to the target. (Hasbro FAQ) *'Attacking With A Partial Squad': If you only have two Archers left, can you still use Arrow Volley and just roll four dice instead of six? No, once you are down to two Archers, you lose the ability to use Arrow Volley. (Hasbro FAQ) Strategy Like most Common Squads, players will want to draft more than one squad of Roman Archers. In addition to all the standard arguments for wanting more than one squad available for activation, Roman Archers can only use their special attack when the player has three figures available. Having reserve Roman Archers means that Arrow Volley remains available after a single archer is killed. Because players will be using the Roman Archers primarily for Arrow Volley, players will be required to keep the Roman Archers adjacent and on a single level when they are active. This can make securing high ground somewhat difficult, depending on the map layout. However, since Arrow Volley is a Special Attack which does not benefit from height advantage, lacking height advantage is tolerable as long as the player is not consistently giving his opponent height advantage in the process. Since the only reliable defense for Roman Archers is to not get attacked in the first place, lacking height advantage on defense is not a primary concern. Roman Archers give you a cheap unit to use against high-defense Heroes. Arrow Volley can penetrate that defense and give you dependable wounds. Unfortunately Roman Archers are very bad at standing up to attacks on their own. For this reason, Roman Archers depend very heavily on having an effective defensive unit in front of them, which can engage opponents and take the brunt of attacks. Roman Archers should be kept roughly 9 spaces back from the position of a set defensive unit screen, and/or 10 spaces back from the expected position of the high-defense Hero that you plan to target. The idea is to take advantage of the Roman Archers' full threat range (move + range). By doing so, the player keeps the Roman Archers as far out of the action as is possible until Arrow Volley becomes useful. Ideally, the planned target should already be engaged with the defensive unit before the Roman Archers move into range.Roman Archers Strategy Review References Category:Einar Category:Human Category:Common Squad Category:Malliddon's Prophecy